On My Way!

On Monday, May 7th, I was finishing up all the details and tying up loose ends to get ready to head out on my journey Tuesday.  Around noon, I met up with a group of friends to have some coffee and catch up on news.  While we were sitting there, we noticed a lady sitting by herself.  No one recognized her, so we invited her to join us.  Turns out Kriss, 64, is from South Africa and was having an Alaska Adventure!  My friends told her that I was about to start out on my own adventure tomorrow, and Kriss looked at me and said "come with me!"  Well, I thought, I'm all packed up and ready to go....so I said "sure!"  She drove her rental car to my house, and we loaded up my stuff and hit the road! 

First we headed down to Valdez, around 350 miles south.  Three hundred and fifty miles of driving gives a lot of time for visiting, and it didn't take long to figure out that we had a lot in common.  We made several pit stops at gas stations, lodges, funky-looking buildings, pull-outs, and photo-ops, and eventually, slowly, made it down to Valdez.  We split the cost of the motel room, and decided to explore Valdez in the rain.  On foot.  And we had a mah-valous time.  We also spent our 2nd day in Valdez, but did some driving around.  We watched a bear for awhile, and saw a couple moose while we were driving.  We also drove out to a glacier and some waterfalls, and enjoyed that.

On Wednesday, we drove to Tok, AK, and split the cost of a little mom & pop motel.  We went out to eat at Fast Eddies, and did some exploring around there.  Getting to know Kriss has been a lot of fun.  She's so sweet, and we're already planning my Africa Adventure when I go to visit her.  She lives in Windhoek, Namibia in South Africa.  She has 2 grown sons.  Daniel is married to Tori and they have their daughter Lucy, 3; and Simon is a pilot in the RAF.  Kriss and I are amazed at how well we get along together.  We have traveled for 3 days now, and feel like we've known each other for years.  It is a very comfortable, very enjoyable fit.  We are both quite pleased that we're traveling together.

We are now heading to Skagway, AK.  She wants to take the ferry to Sitka, and then on to Ketchikan.  I plan on traveling those areas, too, but I intended to walk to Skagway and then take the ferry.  So I am kindof at limbo -- I'm really not sure what my next move will be.  At some point I need to bail and start walking, since that was and still is my goal.  And she is traveling exactly where I intended to walk to, so I am torn between walking or driving.  I honestly don't know what my next move will be, but for now I'm just traveling with her.  And enjoying it.